Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Organizing Drawings using Sheet SetUsing Fields with a Sheet Set
Once the sheet set is created, the ability to use fields in a drawing is available. The sheet set can give information to the drawing such as:

Current Sheet Category

Current Sheet Custom

Current Sheet Description

Current Sheet Issue Purpose

Current Sheet Number

Current Sheet Number and Title

Current Sheet Revision Date

Current Sheet Revision Number

Current Sheet Set

Current Sheet Custom

Current Sheet Set Description

Current Sheet Set Project Milestone

Current Sheet Set Project Name

Current Sheet Set Project Number

Current Sheet Set Project Phase

Current Sheet Subset

Current Sheet Title

Sheet Set

Sheet Set Place Holder

Sheet View

To create a field, start with creating an mtext, right click, then to insertfield. All the options above will be available under sheet set in the field category. Inserting a Sheet Set List Table or Drawing Index
Sheet Set Manager can also create a drawing index from the information in the sheet set.

To create the Sheet List Table, or Drawing Index, right click on the sheet set and select insert Sheet List Table. A pop up box will appear labeled Sheet List Table.

Table Style Settings
AutoCAD comes with two styles as a default. To customize the table style, select the button just to the right of the style name. Select the box labeled Show Subheader to show the subsets in your drawing index. Table Data
Adding information is basic. Selecting the Add button will add a new row to the table. Subsets and Sheets
Here is where adding and removing selected sheets and subsets, it is done by using selection boxes.
Once done select OK, The software will ask for a location of the new sheet list.

The Sheet List Table can be updated by changing the information in the Sheet Set Manager. Now the same information that is in Sheet Set Manager matches the same information in the table.
To change the information, select the table, under the ribbon tab Table Cell, click the Download from Source. The table will update.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

AutoCAD WS is a web app designed to take your work with you home and on your iOS device (Android coming soon). The one thing I don't like about it is the fact that it feel less like the AutoCAD we all know and love. I have found a way to help with that.

Internet Browser
I am a big fan of Google Chrome web browser. One of the things I like about it is the ability to make a web application shortcut from any website. Today we are going to show you how to make a web application shortcut of the AutoCAD WS website.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Publishing Sheet Sets
Sheet Set Manager makes it simple to publish a full set or only select sheets of the construction documents. There are two ways to plot: Publish directly to the plotter/file or use the Publish dialog box. Publish and Plot directly to the plotter/file

Right click on the sheet set, scroll to Publish, and then Publish to Plotter.

This method is used to plot and publish when the page setup is set per layout. The drawback to using this option is if someone plots one of the sheets using the plot command and saved the setup to the layout, the layout will not publish properly.

Publish using Publish dialog box
Publishing using Publish dialog box may not be as fast as Publishing directly to the plotter/file, but there is less of a chance the document will come out wrong. You are also able to use Page Setups saved in the drawing to particular sheets or the full set.

To pull up the dialog box, right click the Sheet Set title, scroll to Publish, and then to Publish Dialog Box.

The Publish Dialog Box will display. Now with page setups, Publish Dialog Box can change the way the document is published. Now we have the options to publish to Plotter named in Page Setup , DWF, DWFx, and PDF.

Selecting the Sheet Set Publish Options allows the options to change information like default output location and naming.
Tip: One of the major options I change the most is type. Multi-sheet file will place the full set in one file and the Single-sheet file will place each sheet per file.

The page setup can be changed by selecting the pull down box. More than one sheet can be changed by using the Shift key and clicking on the sheets then select the pull down for the desired page setup.
Once the set is ready to be published, select Publish.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Last post we talked about using audit to reduce the size of a drawing file. Today we are going to take a look at the command purge. Purging your drawing will reduce the size and help the software from crashing. The purge command removes unused information that the software keeps just in case it may need it in the near future.

Once the sheets have been added to the Sheet Set Manger, they can be dragged and dropped to the order needed. To remove a sheet from the set right click and select remove sheet.

Renaming and Renumbering Sheets

To rename and renumber a sheet or a subset, right click on the sheet needed to be changed and select Rename & Renumber.

A pop up box will show up that will allow the number, sheet title and layout name to be changed. Adding project information to a sheet set

To add project information to the sheet set, like project name, project number, and project description, right click on the sheet set title and scroll down to the sheet set properties.

A new pop up box will display that allows the update of project information.
Tips: Project information in the sheet set can be used in object such as fields. Opening a File from Sheet Set Manager
Opening a drawing using sheet set manager is as simple as double clicking the sheet needed or right clicking the sheet needed and selecting open.

Creating Sub Folders in Sheet Set Manager

Creating subsets in Sheet Set Manager is a fast way to organize and find what is needed in a big drawing set. To create a subset, right click on the sheet set and then to new subset.

The Subset Properties box will pop up. Most of the properties are basic. Select OK. A new subset is added to the sheet set manager.

Tip: To move a sheet to the new subset, simply click and drag to the desired subset

Once the Sheet Set Manager is open, select the pull down box at the top and then click on new sheet set.

A new dialog box will pop up displaying the 4 steps in creating a Sheet Set.

Begin

Sheet Set Details

Choose Layouts

Confirm

Begin
Under Begin there are two options for creating a sheet set. Option one is using “An example sheet set” that allows the use of a standard template to create the sheet set. Option two is using Existing drawings to start a new sheet set.
Today we are going to select the Existing drawings option. Sheet Set Details

This is where basic information like sheet set name, description, and file location can be added

Choose Layouts

Existing layouts can be added to the sheet set by browsing for the proper file needed in the drawing set. Once the layouts are selected, click next to confirm.

Confirm
The confirm tab will give a summary of the layouts to be added to the set. After selecting the next button the new layout will be added to the sheet set.

Import layout tabs to Sheet Set Manager

To add a new sheet from an existing drawing layout, right click the title of the sheet set and select Import Layout as Sheet. A new pop up box will appear which allows you to browse for an existing drawing to add a layout.

Tip: If the import box is not checked, the layout is already in the sheet set or the layout is unable to be imported into the set.